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Asus EN8800GT TOP Review

Conclusion:

The Asus EN8800GT had higher scores than the comparitive cards in 13 out of 32 benchmark tests run. While that may seem like a low number for a higher-end card, it was compared against the top-end cards from the 'last' generation. The performance was good, but not always better than that of the 8800GTX. To put that into perspective though, the G80 8800GTX ranges in price from just under four hundred dollars, to a little over six hundred dollars, while the EN8800GT can be had for two hundred and forty bucks or less. The performance is close to that of last year's top card for half the price, depending on the card purchased. That makes the EN8800GT TOP tremendous value, for the performance that is delivered. At the stock 8800GT clocks, the performance would not be as close to the 8800GTX, but that's what makes an overclocked card a worthy investment. While overclocking, I like to make sure the video card runs as cool as possible to gain the most performance I can. Unfortunately, I was unable to increase the fan speeds using Ntune or Riva Tuner, to help cool down the GPU and memory. While this may seem like a small thing, It is something many people would like to do. On the flip side to this, the card never got any hotter than 73 degrees Celsius and that was only after looping 3DMark 06 for an hour. Since this is a factory overclocked video card, additional speed is sometimes hard to find. The EN8800GT did, however, have another 60MHz on the core and 44MHz on the memory left to play with.

All-in-all, the Asus EN8800GT performed well, had additional overclocking head room and presents a performance/price point that is extremely attractive to the buyers that shop in the 199 to 250 dollar price range. The EN8800GT takes on its main competition, in the form of the HD3870 and beats it outright in 21 of 32 tests and ties it in many of the ones it fell behind on. The two-slot cooling solution nicknamed the "Glacinator," actually helped keep the hardware cool and performing well. If you are in the market for a higher-end card and the price point is right, the Asus EN8800GT TOP would be a worthwhile addition to your gaming rig.

Note: Stay tuned to find out how well The Asus EN800GT TOP version performs in an SLI configuration in OverclockersClub's SLI Benchmarking!